Chile's Colbun cuts ribbon at 230-MW solar farm with BESS in Atacama

• Chilean energy Colbun SA on Monday inaugurated its 230-MW Diego de Almagro Sur solar farm with an 8-MW battery power storage space system (BESS) in Chile's Atacama area, as well as stated that it going to add the storage space component to most of its renewable resource projects in the future.

Following an investment of USD 150 million (EUR 144.5 m), Diego de Almagro Sur currently stands as a 330-hectare (815.4 acres) solar farm featuring some 470,000 panels. The quote is that the plant will certainly be capable of generating around 648 GWh on average per year.

The BESS is made up of 24 batteries with a capacity to keep electrical power for 4 hours.

The centers are located around 27 kilometres (16.8 miles) from the community of Diego de Almagro. According to Colbun, its solar farm is presently the biggest one in commercial procedure in the Atacama region.

The Diego de Almagro Sur scheme has the difference of being Colbun's initial industrial-scale storage space project. The company said that the storage modern technology is one of the pillars of its 2030 calculated schedule, as well as will certainly be consisted of in the majority of its renewables going forward.

Today, Colbun is preparing to establish over 800 MW of storage projects, it claimed. Among them is Celda Solar, a project that is currently being assessed for ecological influence. Celda Solar is made to co-locate a 421-MW solar farm as well as a 240-MW BESS.